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Friday, May 9, 2014

Day of Honour

Dear members of the Canadian military,

I'm sorry. I truly am. On behalf of all Canadians that have a clue I'm sorry that your plight and exploitation, and struggles with PTSD, have been turned into a corporate sponsored politically motivated "Day of Honour". It's sick.

There is nothing I hate more than lies and propaganda, especially of this sort, so while the rest of Canada rolls over for fear of criticizing this blatant P.R. exercise and all critical thought goes out the window I'm going to continue doing what I do, someone has to.

But before I begin with what's really irking me about this whole P.R. stunt I just want to make it clear I have the utmost respect for members of the military. I know I have many readers in the military, some have even reached out with questions as to my opinion on future events, I take it seriously and thus understand what we're talking about here is not blaming members of the military, this is bigger than that. I am however very disappointed in all the yuppie Canadians blabbering on about the Day of Honour so they can feel good about themselves and of course "Canadian". Nationalism and all that jazz which this propaganda is exploiting.

The master corporal, who served two tours in Afghanistan, was manning a display on the regiment, one of several set around the hill that were attracting crowds.

He said it was encouraging to see Canadians pay tribute to the work done in Afghanistan.

“I have no doubts as to the reasons for being there, seeing it first hand, I know the reasons. That place needed our help. I have no regrets going there,” said Sam.

“For me, it’s nice to see the country coming together and showing that they care . . . This is excellent,” he said in an interview.

As a 10-year veteran of the forces, he said he has seen attitudes change during that time and public support grow for the military.

So.. would someone please explicitly state these "reasons"? Can someone explicitly state the "mission" or what was "accomplished"? They needed our help? With what? The Taliban? Is it just me or did this "war" which has lasted longer than World War II continually have changing pretense. Anyone remember 9/11? being in Afghanistan had nothing to do with "helping them" but it's been so long now that you can basically say whatever you want about the "war" because.. honour. You know? Whatever it is we were doing, we did it! Just don't ask what that was.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

So here we sit, scratching our head at the failed drug war on one hand, and remembering and honoring the "mission", which nobody even knows what that is (psst, it was drugs folks - well and a pipeline), and those Honorable Canadian Soldiers we lost performing it. We should never have lost them. They should never have been there.

That might be more explicable if what is going on in eastern Ukraine now were not the mirror image of what took place in Kiev a couple of months ago. Then, it was armed protesters in Maidan Square seizing government buildings and demanding a change of government and constitution. US and European leaders championed the "masked militants" and denounced the elected government for its crackdown, just as they now back the unelected government's use of force against rebels occupying police stations and town halls in cities such as Slavyansk and Donetsk.

When the Ukrainian president was replaced by a US-selected administration, in an entirely unconstitutional takeover, politicians such as William Hague brazenly misled parliament about the legality of what had taken place: the imposition of a pro-western government on Russia's most neuralgic and politically divided neighbour.

So please, take this Day of Honour and remember and honour the soldiers we've lost. But how about we also honour what we all seem to believe Canada stands for too? Let's honor it by not accepting the lies and hypocrisy that's been fed to us and actions taken in our name. It was their duty to go there, it's your duty to ask why. Not of the soldiers, but of the chicken hawks who sent them there. There is no honour in ignorance.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for eQube gaming systems.

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.